Green Tomato Jam is a low-sugar or low-honey cooked jam made with Pomona’s Universal Pectin and contributed by Vivian Solomon. Pomona’s Pectin contains no sugar or preservatives and jells reliably with low amounts of any sweetener. Vivian, who adapted this recipe from a high-sugar Green Tomato Jam recipe on Food.com, says: “This is a wonderful, delicately flavored jam. The lemon gives it bright notes, the cinnamon can’t be tasted but gives it depth, and the vanilla grounds it with a sweet base note. No one will guess that the main ingredient is tomatoes!”
Notes
About sweetener: Vivian used about 2 cups of sugar; I used 1½ cups, which was the right sweetness for me. 1 cup of honey is equivalent to 2 cups of sugar; ¾ cup of honey is equivalent to 1½ cups of sugar. Remember that green tomatoes are usually not sweet at all.
Servings 5 cups
Ingredients
- 2 pounds green tomatoes
- 1 lemon
- ¼ cup lemon juice bottled or fresh
- ½ of a vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ of a stick of cinnamon or ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4½ teaspoons calcium water see step #1
- ½ cup up to 1 cup honey or 1 cup up to 2 cups sugar*
- 4 teaspoons Pomona’s Pectin mixed with sweetener
Instructions
- Before you begin, prepare calcium water.To do this, combine ½ teaspoon calcium powder (in the small packet in your box of Pomona’s pectin) with ½ cup water in a small, clear jar with a lid. Shake well.Extra calcium water should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.
- Wash jars, lids, and bands. Place jars in canner, fill canner 2/3 full with water, bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover, and keep jars in hot canner water until ready to use. Place lids in water in a small sauce pan; cover and heat to a low boil. Turn off heat and keep lids in hot water until ready to use.
- Wash tomatoes and cut into chunks. Pulse chunks briefly in a food processor. Do this in batches so you have more uniformly sized pieces. You don’t want mush.
- Measure 4 cups of processed green tomatoes into a sauce pan and set aside.
- Wash the lemon. Zest half of the lemon into the sauce pan with the tomatoes. Remove the white pith and any seeds from the zested half of the lemon. Chop the flesh but not so fine that you lose the juice. Add the chopped lemon pulp and juice to the sauce pan.
- Add ¼ cup more of lemon juice to the sauce pan.
- Slice the half of vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds into the sauce pan with the tomatoes. Add the pod also. Alternatively, add vanilla extract.
- Add calcium water, cinnamon stick (or ground cinnamon) to the sauce pan, and mix all together well.
- Measure sugar or room temperature honey into a bowl. Thoroughly mix pectin powder into sweetener. Set aside.
- Bring fruit mixture to a full boil. Add pectin-sweetener mixture, stirring vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes to dissolve the pectin while the jam comes back up to a boil. Once the jam returns to a full boil, remove it from the heat.
- Remove the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean pod (if using) from the jam.
- Fill hot jars to ¼” of top. Wipe rims clean. Screw on 2-piece lids. Put filled jars in boiling water to cover. Boil 10 minutes (add 1 minute more for every 1,000 ft. above sea level). Remove from water. Let jars cool. Check seals; lids should be sucked down. Eat within 1 year. Lasts 3 weeks once opened.
Carol
I have loads of green tomatoes, can I double this recipe?
Shelby Collings
You sure can!